Austin Web Design & Internet Marketing Blog

It’s Wednesday, December 13, 2017
and 58°F
in Austin, Texas

Goodbye Qwikster, Hello Again Netflix

A lesson in Web Branding

Well finally Netflix is making at least one good recent business decision, which can be summed up with "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Today it announced that it is dropping plans to spin off it's DVD by mail rental business into a separate company called Qwikster. It will maintain all its operations under a single website and company name -- Netflix.

If you've spent a decade building up a brand and consumer loyalty on the internet, why would you confuse your customers by introducing an entirely new brand? The ill-conceived Qwikster brand can also be used to caution against quirky word spellings that could easily confuse people -- or land them at some incorrect website due to spelling issues. Yes, Netflix uses an "x" place of "cks" but that shorthand seems more common and understandable than following a q with a 'w' instead of a 'u' and omitting a 'c' before a k.

One might have hoped that users would have adapted to the changes, but when you are in a recurring subscription based fee model -- why would you give any of your customers reason to cancel? Those monthly payments are one of those things most users don't think about, until you give them a reason to do so.

They could have followed the cable company playbook of small monthly increases -- where ones bill is constantly creeping up a dollar or two -- but instead they completely cancelled the combined "bundle" discounted plan that allowed users both options DVD and streaming options under the same plan -- and forced users to buy both plans separately. People like the idea of a bundle and a discount -- it's worked for cable and phone companies for decades. There likely would have been little customer outcry at a $1 increase or maybe $2 increase -- but practically doubling prices in the middle of an economic downtown is probably not a great idea.

Netflix is learning that people like their "old Coke" brand more than the "new Coke," although with the continuing price increases they haven't completely returned to the "old Netflix" brand which consumers loved so much. It's going to take some time for them to regain their users' trust and loyalty, which is so important to a web brand.

TECH ADVICE

we've got the answers

Here's an informal overview of live chat options, outlining how Olark, one of the leading providers, works and its features. We explain how live chat can increase online sales and generate leads no matter the size of your company.

WEB DESIGN

helping agents sell more

If you are a realtor or real estate broker, you need a website to advertise your business and attract new clients. Get clients to stay on your website by providing access to Multiple Listing Service (MLS) real estate listings.

WEBSITE SEO

essentials for success

When we build a new website for our home builder clients, we always try to focus on implementing "best practices search engine optimization (SEO)" to maximize their placement in organic search engine results.

WEB DESIGN

more design ideas

The unspoken fear all web designers dread - you've been asked to use cursive fonts! There is no escape... yes, it has happened to me, Bob Atchison, many times and I have the battle scars to prove it. Here are some cursive fonts I actually like.

AUSTIN

too many people in austin?

With Austin making headlines and ending up on virtually every "Top 10 Best City for..." lists -- we now have about 150 people moving here daily!! We figured we should warn potential new residents of the hidden dangers of moving to Austin.

As homes in Austin, Texas are getting more expensive and selling for well over $1 million, many home builders and real estate agents are turning to aerial drone photography and videos to showcase their listings.

Home Builders

We are one of the leading developers of home builder websites in the USA with years of experience in designing powerful sites that are easy to navigate. No matter what the size of your business we can work you to structure a site that showcases your unique talent brand identity. We can offer you lots of great features, floorplans, lots, elevations, choose your own finishes, videos and spec homes for sale. Besides being beautiful, our sites are easy to use and update. Call us at (512)469-7454 and let's talk about your project.

Online Stores

Over the years we have built hundreds of sites for online retailers. We specialize in building complex custom shopping carts tailored to your specific needs in open source PHP. We have the technical abilities to integrate your shopping cart with many third party services that use APIs - such as Teapplix and ShipStation for easy shipping and order fulfillment. We can also work with common shopping cart solutions from X-Cart, WooCommerce for WordPress, OpenCart, osCommerce, and Magento. Call us at (512) 469-7454 and let's get your new website into production.

Business to Business

In every city there are hundreds of businesses that provide professional services. Most business search for services on the web. If you don’t have a website your chance of landing new accounts is greatly reduced. It is really important that companies have a site that tells your brand story and the services you provide in a compelling way. We focus on your business objectives in creating a site and can provide design, programming, copy writing support. We even do logos. You can reach us at (512) 469-7454.

Real Estate

We’ve created sites for real estate companies providing commercial and residential services to both buyers and sellers. From beautiful online brochures to complex sites with hundreds of listings we create sites for firms of any size. We have the capability to work with various MLS (Multiple Listing Service) data providers to add home listings to your website via an IDX (Internet Data Exchange) feed. Some common third party services that we can work with include IDXBroker, Diverse Solutions, and rewIDX. Let's talk about your new website today - (512) 469-7454.

Fashion and Beauty

We’ve created websites for highly successful businesses in these fields. We can offer everything from wholesale to retail with online stores that can sell a huge range of products. We understand the complexity of selling mass produced and one-of-a-kind items. We also understand the issues associated with sizes, colors and the big images you’ll need to sell your products online. Our carts are easy to use and update. You can easily manage items, inventory and shipping from the custom website we’ll build for you. Let's get started - (512) 469-7454.

Professional Associations

We’ve built a number of sites for professional organizations like the Texas Municipal League. These websites can offer complex services to their members. TML has thousands of pages of online articles and searchable, complex databases. We can provide your organization with online membership management tools and other business features you need to provide. We also create websites for professional conferences with tools to manage program schedules, speakers, accommodations, papers, videos and online registration.

Texas Brands

In the beginning - 1997 - our business was global from Paris to California and New York. Today more of our new customers Texas-based. People know and love Austin and the Hill Country. Austin City Limits and SXSW attract people from all over the world. Many of the most trusted brands - like Whole Foods and Dell - are based in Austin. We love it when we get the chance to create websites that want feature Texas or Austin in their products or marketing. We also have huge databases of Texas images to feature in the sites we build. You can reach us at (512) 469-7454.

Wine and Food

Over the years we have created websites for many of the biggest brands in wine, beverage and food sales that have millions of dollars in annual sales. We create sites that offer hundreds of brands, thousands of products and brands in online sales. our shopping carts are easy to operate and can handle any level of sales. Pallasart builds sites for caterers, food producers, websites that can support retail and wholesale sales. we understand the unique issues of shipping and cross-state line sales.